One Step Closer
by PhantomoftheBarricade1832
Summary: Éponine finally gets her dream role, but it comes with a price. She has to leave home for six months. This puts more strain on her, rocky, relationship with her siblings and drives a wedge in her relationship. She meets Enjolras and things gets worse. A lot can happen in six months. Marponine, eventual Enjonine.


**AN: So, I wasn't really happy with the way things were going in If Only. I just wasn't satisfied with it and I feel like I could do better. So I'm starting over, using the same prompt and still writing it for MaryEvH, but I'm going to slow things down.**

**I hope you understand and I hope you still like the story. This is If Only Take Deux. The title is from a song in the Little Mermaid, the other story was, too; but the was unintentional. Alright, read, review, and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Les Misérables or Swan Lake.**

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Chapter 1

"Come on, ring!" Éponine shouted, shaking the small phone she held in her hands. She gazed at the object expectantly, praying for it to give into her wishes, but she was disappointed when nothing happened. She heaved a sigh and went back to staring at her reflection in the black, blank screen.

Éponine waited for a few minutes to pass before she clicked on the small button on the top of the phone. The object sprung to life and illuminated her face in the ever growing darkness in her room. She smiled softly at the picture that greeted her sight.

It was a picture of her and Marius, her boyfriend of four years, at her birthday party last year. The smile on Éponine's face was wide, showing off her dimples and making her eyes shine. Marius had a grin on his face as well, his arm was wrapped securely around her shoulder and he was gazing at her affectionately. They looked so happy and content in the picture that it tore Éponine's mind away from her real focus.

She stopped staring at the picture when the screen faded and went dark once more. Éponine clicked it back on, cursing herself for getting distracted. She looked at the clock and her heart fell.

_5:54_

They were supposed to call her at five and it was almost six. Éponine let the screen fade to nothing again and the phone fell from her shaky grasp onto the comforter below. She let out a shaky breath before grabbing the pillow behind her and burying her face into the silk.

Éponine bit her lip and blinked back the tears that were stinging the back of her eyes. She refused to cry over this. It was just a role, there were plenty of other opportunities to audition for other roles. But it still hurt to know that the audition she had put her heart and soul into didn't work out.

She shouldn't have expected anything different. She had gone up against a bunch of other girls that had probably been far more experienced than she was. She knew the director didn't want a terrible ballerina in the title role of Odette. That would just look bad on his part.

Éponine thought the audition went well, but she apparently wrong. A few tears managed to seep out of her eyes and she brought her face out of the pillow to wipe them away. Her phone buzzed a few seconds later and she blindly picked it up and accepted the call, not bothering to read the caller I.D.

"Hello," she croaked into the phone, still wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater.

"Hello, Madmoiselle Jondrette?" the other person asked.

"Yes, what do you want?" she said, harsher than she intended to.

"Well, it's Étienne Combeferre calling to let you know you got the role," the man spoke up, somewhat timidly. Éponine almost fell off the bed in shock. "Sorry the call came late, I was running auditions for another role and time got away from me."

Éponine blinked a few times before she answered. "T-thank you, Monsieur Combeferre," she said, in voice that did not at all sound like her own. The man gave her a few more instructions before he hung up the phone.

Éponine sat rooted to her spot, the phone still pressed to her ear as she processed what had happened. She pulled the phone down from her ear, throwing it onto the bed before she pushed the pillow off of her lap and she jumped up. Éponine let out an excited, high-pitched squeal that surprised herself, but she was too happy to care.

"I did it! I actually did it!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down giddily. She couldn't believe that she was going to play Odette, her dream role, in a National Touring Production of Swan Lake. Éponine jumped once more before she sat back down on the bed.

She grabbed her phone and unlocked the screen. She went to her contacts list and she was about to tap the first number that appeared before she stopped. Her finger hesitantly hovered over the contact name, but she couldn't push herself to press down on it and make the call. Éponine looked at her sister's name that sat on the screen in bold, black font.

Éponine swallowed a sudden lump that had built up in her throat. She hadn't talked to her sister since their falling out. She didn't know if she had enough courage, or if she had too much pride to call her sister and apologize.

Deciding against her better judgement, Éponine pressed down on her sister's contact information before pushing the call button shakily. She pressed the phone to her ear and practically held her breath as the dialing tone rang through her ears. After a few minutes the tone ending and she heard her sister's breath on the other end of the line.

"Azelma," Éponine breathed, not actually believing that her sister had picked up. "H-how are you?" She pushed the conversation forward, the tremor in her voice giving away her nervousness.

The line was silent before Azlema sucked in a breath. "Éponine," she said simply. "I'm fine, but let's skip the formalities and get straight to it. Why did you call me?" Her voice held and icy undertone to it and Éponine felt guilt pool in the bottom of her stomach.

"Um, I just wanted to call to see what you've been up to recently," she answered, trying to put as much nonchalance behind the words as possible. She could just feel the the coldness from her sister through the phone.

Azelma was once agains silent. "Like you actually give a shit about what I've been doing," she finally hissed into the line. "Cut the bullshit, Éponine, and tell me why you really called." She could just picture the stance her little sister would be in if she was here. Her arms would be crossed and her mouth would be pulled into a tight frown.

Éponine let out a deep sigh. "I called to tell you some big news," she said. She took the silence as a cue to continue. "So, recently, I audition for the role of Odette in a Nation Tour of the show. And I got the part, they just called and told me."

"Congratulations, I'll make sure Gav hears the news," Azelma said briskly and Éponine knew she was going to hang up the phone.

"Wait! Azlema, Gav, how is he?" she asked, playing with the lose comforter as a small distraction. She closed her eyes as she listened to the small breaths that belonged to her sister.

Azelma suddenly let out a harsh laugh, surprising Éponine. "Oh, other than the fact that he's almost flunking out of school, he's doing just fine. But you wouldn't know that because you never bother to make time to see him."

Éponine huffed into the phone. "I would've made time to see him, it's just that I've been busy," she defended herself. She pushed a loose lock of her dark brown hair behind her ear.

"Sure, but you're too busy with you perfect little boyfriend to even care about Gav anymore," Azelma supplied. "Look, I don't know what the point of the conversation was, but I have to go. I need to make Gav dinner before I head out to work." Azelma sighed bitterly into the phone. "Make sure to call Gav and tell him your exciting news, if you even still have his number."

The line went dead and Éponine sat in stunned silence. She released a breath she didn't know she was holding and clicked her phone off. Éponine threw her phone down angrily on the bed and launched one of the pillows on the bed at the wall in front of her.

She drug a hand down her face and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. A frustrated groan leaved her lips before she sunk backwards onto the pillow behind her. She shouldn't have expected that to turn out any differently than it had. She knew Azelma was still mad at her for leaving them to go live with Marius.

More importantly, Azelma was mad at her for leaving Gavroche behind. Her sweet, innocent little brother who she had just abandoned for Marius. Éponine tried hard daily not to think about what she did, but she couldn't escape it. It haunted her in her dreams to the point where she had shut her siblings out completely. It made coping with the situation easier, somehow.

Éponine's ears perked up when she heard the opening and closing of the front door to their apartment, signaling Marius' return from work. She gazed out the window when she noticed that she was bathed in complete darkness. Her conversation must have lasted longer than she had thought. She slowly pulled herself up and moved out into the living room.

She smiled when she saw Marius standing at the door, brushing some light snow from his shoulders and hair. Marius looked at her and grinned warmly. Éponine crossed the room and pressed herself into his cold body. Marius wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

"Hey," he whispered.

"Hi," she mumbled into his chest. She pulled back and grinned at him. "I have exciting news!" Marius nodded and knelt down to untie the laces on his boots. "I got the part! I'm going to be playing Odette!"

Marius suddenly looked up and his face broke out into a grin. "Oh, 'Ponine, that's wonderful," he said. He stood up and pulled her into his arms. "I'm so happy for you. You know what, why don't we celebrate. Let me change out of my clothes and I'll take us out for dinner."

Éponine smiled and nodded. "That sounds wonderful," she murmured. She leaned up on her toes and pressed her warm lips to his cold ones. Marius pulled her to him by tugging on her waist. Éponine ran her fingers through his hair and broke the kiss, resting her forehead against his. "You're the best boyfriend ever."

Marius chuckled and pulled back. "I am pretty awesome, aren't I?" he joked, earning a playful slap on the arm from Éponine. "Alright, let me go change and then we'll leave." He kissed her once more before stepping out of his shoes and heading towards their bedroom.

Éponine thought about following him, to tell him about her conversation with Azelma, but she decided against it. She instead waited for him to reappear, which he did a few minutes later. He grabbed Éponine's dark red coat off of the coat rack and helped her put it on.

Marius slipped on his own coat and slipped his boots back on, redoing the laces while Éponine slipped on her dark brown boots. Once they were ready, Éponine grabbed Marius' hand and exited the door. The couple left the apartment, talking happily the whole way to Marius' car and the restaurant.

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**AN: So there's the first new chapter! I hope you guys liked it and I made Marius less of an asshole this time, but that's because things will take a little longer to get to this time. And Musichetta will make an appearance soon.**

**Review!**


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